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Smile! You’re at the best WordPress.com site everFri, 18 Aug 2017 02:53:24 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://s2.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.pngnorbielsz552https://norbielsz552.wordpress.com
Opera Max can now save Android mobile data in 16 more regionshttps://norbielsz552.wordpress.com/2014/11/19/opera-max-can-now-save-android-mobile-data-in-16-more-regions/
https://norbielsz552.wordpress.com/2014/11/19/opera-max-can-now-save-android-mobile-data-in-16-more-regions/#respondWed, 19 Nov 2014 22:49:20 +0000http://norbielsz552.wordpress.com/?p=60]]> Over the last few months, Opera’s been slowly rolling out Max across the world to save mobile data — apparently by up to 50 percent, including images and videos — on Android devices, and its recent collaboration with MediaTek is no doubt a big…

Every day dozens and dozens of new and updated apps and games hit the iOS and Mac App Stores. It’s impossible to keep up with them all, but it’s not impossible to pick out the very best. Here they are! Today we’ve got iOS game updates, new Borderlands 2 DLC for Mac users, a Netflix update and more!

New and updated iOS apps

Real Racing 3 2.2.0: The latest version of EA’s realistic racing game for iOS sports open wheeler vehicles like the Caterham Seven 620R, KTM X-Bow R, Ariel Atom 3.5 and Atom V8. The roster has been expanded with other new cars, the Road to Le Mans event has been added, and more. Free – Download now

Horn 1.7: Horn is a third person action adventure game set in a fantasy world. It hasn’t been updated recently, but it has gone free to play, which makes it worth considering picking up if the original price ($6.99) put you off. Free – Download now

New York Times 4.0.11: New York Times’ native iOS app brings you headlines, stories and photos from the Grey Lady. This update fixes a bug with background updates and sections ordering. Free – Download now

MediaFire 1.3: The cloud-based file utility adds full-screen support for iPads, an updated design for iOS 7 and other improvements. Free – Download now

The Simpsons: Tapped Out: Springfield is now under siege by bloodthirsty bunnies. Guide the whole Simpons family through the treacherous Easter season in this free-to-play city-building game. Free – Download now

The Final Hours of Titanfall: Go deep behind the scenes to explore the creation of one of the biggest console game launches in recent memory. $1.99 – Download now

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft: Blizzard’s first mobile game brings their beloved fantasy universe to the card game genre. Duke it out with opponents online as one of nine classic characters. Free, IAPs – Download now

New and updated Mac apps

Borderlands 2: Headhunter 5: Son of Crawmerax: The final downloadable content for Borderlands 2 has arrived! Sir Hammerlock gets kidnapped by the terrible Son of Crawmerax in this fifth and final Headhunter Pack. Simultaneous Mac/PC release! $2.99 – Download now

Adobe Flash Player 13.0.0.201: The latest version of the plug-in software to enable your Mac’s browser to load Flash web content contains fixes for critical vulnerabilities, according to Adobe. Free – Download now

Dropbox 2.6.29: The popular cross-platform file sync tool has been updated with a fix for a bug that could cause a second account to get unlinked if the e-mail associated with the account changes, and makes a change to the camera uploads splash screen. Free – Download now

More apps and updates?

If you try any of the apps or updates, let me know how they work for you. If you got any new or updated apps today that you loved, but don’t see here, let us know about them!

]]>https://norbielsz552.wordpress.com/2014/04/17/new-and-updated-apps-real-racing-netflix-gmail-and-more/feed/0norbielsz552Microsoft announces Skype TX with studio-grade audio and video for broadcastershttps://norbielsz552.wordpress.com/2014/04/15/microsoft-announces-skype-tx-with-studio-grade-audio-and-video-for-broadcasters/
https://norbielsz552.wordpress.com/2014/04/15/microsoft-announces-skype-tx-with-studio-grade-audio-and-video-for-broadcasters/#respondTue, 15 Apr 2014 15:59:01 +0000http://norbielsz552.wordpress.com/?p=56]]> Today, Microsoft’s unveiling Skype TX, a new version of its VoIP service geared toward broadcasters. The service uses technology developed by Cat and Mouse — a recent MSFT acquisition — to offer the higher-quality audio and video output that media…

If you like to spam your friends with photos of your canine companion on your own Facebook or Twitter page, Woof for iPhone may be the perfect app for you. You can build your dog their own profile, follow other dogs, and even track walks and view parks and other Woof users’ walk routes.

More than anything, Woof is pretty much a social community for dog lovers. Aside from sharing photos, the most useful features of Woof are its abilities to let you view and map out walks and dog park locations. You can even label them as no leash, fenced in, and add other attributes. It makes for a great way to find dog friendly environments near you, especially when traveling with your dog.

I’ve found Woof to be completely entertaining and useful in the little amount of time I’ve spent with it. One major issue I have though is that you can’t have more than one dog under one account. You’d need to log out and log back in with another account. For those of us that have more than one dog, that could quickly become annoying.

If you’re a dog owner, there’s no reason not to check out Woof. After you do, let us know what you think!

In the snapshot, the 43-year-old rapper holds his nearly 22-month-old baby girl high above his head while standing ankle-deep in a shallow pool of water. The infinity pool, surrounded by palm trees, overlooks the ocean and beautiful blue sky. In the silhouette photo, Jay Z appears to be wearing tropical swim trunks and a white T-shirt, while his daughter also wears a little swimsuit.

Jay Z seems to have a very special bond with his adorable little girl. In the November issue of Vanity Fair, the rapper said Blue is in love with his twelfth studio album, Magna Carta . . . Holy Grail.

“She does like her mother’s music — she watches [Beyonce’s concerts] on the computer every night. But my album came out and I don’t know if Blue ever heard any of my music prior to this album — she’s only 18 months old and I don’t play my music around the house,” Jay Z explained. “But this album was new, so we played it. And she loves all the songs. She plays a song and she goes, ‘More, Daddy, more . . . Daddy song.'”

“She’s my biggest fan. If no one bought the Magna Carta [album], the fact that she loves it so much, it gives me the greatest joy,” he said. “And that’s not like a cliche. I’m really serious. Just to see her — ‘Daddy song, more, Daddy.’ She’s genuine, she’s honest, because she doesn’t know it makes me happy. She just wants to hear it.”

Audio for this story from Morning Edition will be available at approximately 9:00 a.m. ET.

Robert Hilburn, author of the memoir Corn Flakes With John Lennon (And Other Tales From a Rock ‘n’ Roll Life), was a critic and music editor for the Los Angeles Times for 35 years.

Christopher Morris/Courtesy of Little, Brown

Robert Hilburn, author of the memoir Corn Flakes With John Lennon (And Other Tales From a Rock ‘n’ Roll Life), was a critic and music editor for the Los Angeles Times for 35 years.

Christopher Morris/Courtesy of Little, Brown

In early 1968, country singer Johnny Cash gave one of the defining performances of his career when he played for inmates at California’s Folsom State Prison. Robert Hilburn, a music critic early in his career at the Los Angeles Times, was the only reporter to cover that legendary concert.

Hilburn continued to follow the singer throughout his career. The author’s new biography, Johnny Cash: The Life, goes further in documenting Cash’s dark side than the 2005 biographical drama film Walk the Line. The new book also chronicles Cash’s last years — and the redemption he sought before his death in 2003.

“Johnny Cash was a good man,” Hilburn tells NPR’s David Greene. “He tried to live up to his faith. It was just difficult. He struggled, and that was the great drama of Johnny Cash. And I think John Carter, his son, said it best. He said, ‘My dad’s life was a struggle between darkness and light, and in the end, the light won.'”

Interview Highlights

On Cash recording while his health deteriorated in the ’90s

“That was the salvation. That was the thing in his life that always brought him comfort. And he wanted to try to regain his legacy that he thought he had lost. It was just an act of tremendous courage, those last few albums. And he would even go into the studio some days, and he would record two lines of a song and then he’d have to stop and catch his breath. Sometimes, he’d have to lay down and rest for 10 minutes, and then he’d get up and do the next two lines of the song, and they would splice it together. And Rick Rubin was great about that, because he thought he was making a documentary of Johnny Cash. So if John’s vocal was off-key or something, it didn’t matter — because, again, this was the struggle of a man.”

On the ‘Hurt’ video

“It’s such a heartbreaking video to see him so frail that June Carter didn’t want him to put it out. The fascinating thing is June is very sick. And in the video, she looks very sad and vulnerable herself. She’s looking down at John, and when you see the video the first time, you think she’s thinking, ‘My gosh, he’s going to die. What am I going to do without him?’ What Rick Rubin and the director of the video didn’t know was June had learned the night before that she had a serious heart problem and she was going to have to go back into the hospital. She had a premonition she was going to die in the hospital. So what was really going on when she was looking at John from the stairways is, ‘What’s he going to do without me?'”

On why the unveiling of Cash’s affair with June Carter’s sister haunted him

“I didn’t know if I should tell it. I didn’t know if I should tell people that Johnny Cash had an affair with his sister-in-law while his wife was pregnant. How much does the public need to know about a performer? The main purpose of the book is talking about the artistry of someone, so how much of your personal life do you need to know? You realize it’s important, the personal life, because you see how the personal life shapes the artistry. You see things in his music that’s a reflection of the pain he has in his private life.”

SYDNEY (AP) — China and Southeast Asian governments demanded an explanation from the U.S. and its allies on Thursday following media reports that American and Australian embassies in the region were being used as hubs for Washington’s secret electronic data collection program.

The reports come amid an international outcry over allegations the U.S. has spied on the telephone communications of as many as 35 foreign leaders.

A document from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, published this week by German magazine Der Spiegel, describes a signals intelligence program called “Stateroom” in which U.S., British, Australian and Canadian embassies secretly house surveillance equipment to collect electronic communications. Those countries, along with New Zealand, have an intelligence-sharing agreement known as “Five Eyes.”

“China is severely concerned about the reports, and demands a clarification and explanation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.

Australia’s Fairfax media reported Thursday that the Australian embassies involved are in Jakarta, Bangkok, Hanoi, Beijing and Dili in East Timor; and High Commissions in Kuala Lumpur and Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. The Fairfax report, based on the Der Spiegel document and an interview with an anonymous former intelligence officer, said those embassies are being used to intercept phone calls and internet data across Asia.

In a statement, Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said his government “cannot accept and strongly protests the news of the existence of wiretapping facilities at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta.”

“It should be emphasized that if confirmed, such action is not only a breach of security, but also a serious breach of diplomatic norms and ethics, and certainly not in tune with the spirit of friendly relations between nations,” he said.

The Snowden document said the surveillance equipment is concealed, including antennas that are “sometimes hidden in false architectural features or roof maintenance sheds.”

Des Ball, a top Australian intelligence expert, told The Associated Press he had personally seen covert antennas in five of the embassies named in the Fairfax report.

He declined to go into further detail or specify which embassies those were. But Ball said what Der Spiegel has revealed is hardly surprising or uncommon. Many countries have routinely used embassies as bases to covertly listen in on phone calls, and reports of such surveillance have been public for decades, he said.

“We use embassies to pick up stuff that we can’t pick up from ground stations here in Australia — and lots of countries do that,” said Ball, a professor with the Australian National University’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre.

According to the Snowden document, the spying sites are small in size and staff. “They are covert, and their true mission is not known by the majority of the diplomatic staff at the facility where they are assigned,” it said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade declined to comment on the reports. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said only that the government had not broken any laws.

“Every Australian governmental agency, every Australian official, at home and abroad, operates in accordance with the law,” Abbott told reporters. “And that’s the assurance that I can give people.”

Still, there was predictable outrage in the countries named in the document.

Malaysian Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said his government viewed the allegations as a serious matter and would investigate whether the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur was being used for spying. The country’s opposition party issued a statement Thursday urging the Malaysian government to lodge a protest with both the U.S. and Australian embassies.

Thailand’s National Security Council Secretary-General, Lt. Gen. Paradorn Pattanathabutr, said the government told the U.S. that spying was a crime under Thai laws, and that Thailand would not cooperate if asked to help eavesdrop.

Asked about the Australian embassy allegations, he said Australians are not capable of doing such sophisticated surveillance work.

“When it comes to technology and mechanics, the U.S. is more resourceful and more advanced than Australia,” he said. “So I can say that it is not true that the Australian embassy will be used as a communications hub for spying.”

]]>https://norbielsz552.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/china-other-asians-angry-over-embassy-spy-reports/feed/0norbielsz552Make-A-Wish Will Turn San Francisco Into Gotham City For This Batkidhttps://norbielsz552.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/make-a-wish-will-turn-san-francisco-into-gotham-city-for-this-batkid/
https://norbielsz552.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/make-a-wish-will-turn-san-francisco-into-gotham-city-for-this-batkid/#respondSun, 03 Nov 2013 01:14:43 +0000http://norbielsz552.wordpress.com/?p=44]]>

Miles is a great kid fighting a courageous battle against leukemia. But for one special day in November, he’ll be fighting crime as Batkid, riding alongside his hero Batman and protecting the streets of San Francisco.

]]>https://norbielsz552.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/make-a-wish-will-turn-san-francisco-into-gotham-city-for-this-batkid/feed/0norbielsz552Make-A-Wish Will Turn San Francisco Into Gotham City For This Batkid1,250 LEDs Shimmer On the Surface of This Abandoned Oil Tankhttps://norbielsz552.wordpress.com/2013/11/02/1250-leds-shimmer-on-the-surface-of-this-abandoned-oil-tank/
https://norbielsz552.wordpress.com/2013/11/02/1250-leds-shimmer-on-the-surface-of-this-abandoned-oil-tank/#respondSat, 02 Nov 2013 07:37:10 +0000http://norbielsz552.wordpress.com/?p=42]]>

The shift in season reminded me of this cool old project in cold Helsinki, where a team of designers turned an abandoned oil tank into a lovely, year-round public art project.